Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Way back when, the only way you would’ve found out about a
regional recipe like Chicken Riggies, would have been to eat it while traveling
through Central New York.

You would’ve loved it (because there’s nothing not to
love) and maybe even tried to recreate it when you got home, but more likely it
would have ended up fading into nothing more than a pleasant memory;
referred to as “that rigatoni we had in Utica.”

I’m sure you’ll plan a trip through the lovely Utica/Rome
area of New York State eventually, but in the meantime, I offer up my take on
this thoroughly enjoyable plate of pasta. I think it’s fairly authentic, with
two notable exceptions. I use Marsala instead of the standard white wine, and
use roughly chopped thigh meat, instead of the more popular chicken breasts.

This results in a sauce that seems much richer than it
actually is, and I think you’ll love the subtle sweetness the wine imparts,
which works wonderfully with the heat from the peppers. Of course, as I joke
about in the video, forget how tasty the recipe is…it’s worth making just for
the name alone. What’s for dinner? Chicken Riggies! Riggies? Yes, Riggies!

Anyway, if you’re from Central New York, I hope I did your
venerable recipe proud. If you’re not, I hope you give this gorgeous rigatoni
recipe a try, and experience what only a few decades ago, you may not have ever
heard of. Enjoy!

A different take on the riggies im used to. Two schools of thought on riggie sauces, one cream based and the other uses butter. Still going to give these ones a go (I am from the butter school of thought). I do like the idea of starting off with some sausage.

My husband and I just finished scarfing this down. Completely delicious in every way! My husband said several times that if this was on the menu in a restaurant he would order it every time. I'm now considering opening a restaurant, it would have to be a success! Why should NY have all the fun? THANK YOU Chef John for another great recipe :D

Hi I was wondering if there is anything I could use as a wine/alcohol substitute. Also I was wondering if you ever tried to tweak this recipe to make it more southwestern and use chipotle with adobe and tomatoes as a sauce,monterey jack cheese ground chicken and chorizo and cilantro.

Chef John, At about the same time I was introduced to Chicken Riggies, I also discovered another dish from that region call Utica Greens. Everyone seems to have their own version, all of which are apparently the "original recipe". The Radisson Hotel in Utica has a great one. Something any cayenne addict would love.

DJ: Common substitution for wine is broth/stock. Use a light colored stock like chicken or fish when the recipe calls for white wine and a dark stock like beef when it calls for red. That's what I just used for my riggies and I thought they came out great! Thanks Chef! -Jon

Hi Chef! I wanted to share a funny story with you. I bought the Marsala wine to make this recipe (and another I have planned for the week). We've never bought Marsala wine before and when my Fiance got home he asked me, "What is this?" I just replied, "Wine for cooking". And he got very nervous and said, "Doesn't Chef John say you can only use real wine for cooking? Not 'cooking wine'? Why did you buy this?" To which I laughed and said that it was real wine and I only bought it because one of Chef John's recipes called for it. Then he was relieved, apologized for doubting me and excited I was making one of your recipes this week. We love you, Chef!

I shall try this tonight, it looks very tasty! I just wish I knew what exactly this "italian sausage" is. I know that that's an actual thing in the US, but in Europe we don't have a specific kind of sausage simply labeled "italian sausage". Judging by the video it could be salsicce, but I couldn't find any at the store today, so I went with a spicy chorizo instead (despite it not even being italian). I won't be able to crumble it like that, but I figured it would harmonize well taste-wise. Either way though, it would be nice to know if salsicce is actually the thing to go for whenever you call for italian sausage. Cheers!

Alright, so using chorizo was simply a beautiful, beautiful thing! I don't know what it would taste like with actual italian sausage, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and claim that this was at least as good. That signature rich chorizo flavor really turned this otherwise fairly standard tomato sauce into something special, I can only recommend it!

Chef John, wow this was a home run! I used crappy Italian sausage, bad white wine, and mediocre peppers as. I have a limited access to good jarred hot peppers living in Ireland, and this plate of food was still so delicious. My wife and I loved it and I will absolutly make this again for sure.

As always your videos are bringing my cooking skills to the next level. Thanks so much for posting this amazing recipe!